We are at the poker stage of the contest to replace Dalton McGuinty as Premier of Ontario. And so far all of the candidates are waiting to see what the dealer flops.

The delegate-selection meetings that took place in 107 ridings on the weekend made clear that, when the Liberal leadership convention takes place Jan. 25-26 at Maple Leaf Gardens, Sandra Pupatello and Kathleen Wynne have the clearest paths to victory. Ms. Pupatello has 27% of elected delegates and Ms. Wynne has 25%. Gerard Kennedy is next closest at 14%, meaning he and the other three trailing candidates will need to gather an awful lot of support in later ballots to overtake both of the leaders.

The far more likely scenario is that those with fewer delegates will end up throwing their support to either Ms. Pupatello or Ms. Wynne. And the direction that they are leaning will go a long way toward determining who will lead this province on Jan. 27. But on Tuesday, none of them was moving their chips just yet.

“My strategy, simply put, is to keep going,” said Eric Hoskins, the Toronto MPP who came in last among the six remaining candidates with 6% of committed delegates, in a speech to the Toronto Board of Trade. “I will continue in this leadership race, right into the convention.”

Addressing a small group of reporters after his speech, Dr. Hoskins said he has met with both of the front-runners and that he’s comfortable with them, but insisted he hasn’t decided who he would support if he’s knocked out of the race after the first ballot.

“What’s the hurry?,” he said with a smile. See? Poker.

Harinder Takhar, the Mississauga MPP who joined the race on the last day of eligibility and had the lowest profile of the seven contenders — Toronto MPP Glen Murray dropped out on Thursday — surprised on the weekend with 13% of delegates, right behind Mr. Kennedy. In an interview with the National Post, he would offer no clues as to where he might take those supporters.

“I’m in this race to win,” Mr. Takhar said, in a very glass-half-full approach to the numbers at this point. Asked if he has had discussions with Ms. Pupatello or Ms. Wynne, he would only allow that “at this point everybody is approaching you” and that he would “keep [his] mind open” as the process moves along.

Mr. Takhar also addressed what passed for the only controversy in this sleepy race, a Tuesday column in the Toronto Star that blasted him for embellishing his backstory as someone who arrived in Canada in the 1970s with $7 in his pocket and worked his way out of poverty. Curiously, the Star’s key source was Mr. Takhar’s own uncle, who contacted the writer to say that the former Government Services minister lived at his home when he moved from India. The uncle’s point was that Mr. Takhar was hardly scratching out a living on the streets when he came to Canada.

Asked by the Post why his relative would be dishing to a newspaper about him, Mr. Takhar said, “I will tell you that I haven’t talked to my uncle since 1993.” There were business dealings between the men that were settled in the courts, he said, describing their past as “dirty laundry between family that shouldn’t be aired.”

Readers — or more importantly, Liberal convention delegates — can decide for themselves whether his characterization of his past is defensible, but it remains that someone like Mr. Takhar could, and probably will, have a major role to play in choosing the next premier. Their clout can’t be dismissed.

Mr. Takhar has said deficit-reduction would be a top priority, and that he’s open to shrinking the public service to bring it about. That position alone would seem to ally him more with Ms. Pupatello. Dr. Hoskins spoke on Tuesday about reducing poverty as “a core part of our governing consensus,” something that echoes more what Ms. Wynne has been saying about the need for a “fairer economy.”

They may have their poker faces on, in other words. But they still have some tells.

In the wake of a Grammy Awards ceremony that disappointed many, from Kanye West to the masses on Twitter lamenting the state of pop music, a historical perspective is key. Few are better poised to offer one than Andy Kim.